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This article describes E-waste basics and E-waste management. It mentions E-waste recycling and E-waste disposal process.
It also mentions advantages and disadvantages of E-Waste (Electronic Waste).

What is E-waste

The term E-waste stands for Electronic Waste. It is the term which is related to waste produced by
disposal of all the electrical and electronic equipments. It includes waste generated due to computers, monitors, printers, air-conditioners, ovens, refrigerators,
washing machines, TV sets, mobile phones, toys, lighting equipments, medical devices etc.

The e-waste consists of many compounds which include organic and in-organic compounds.
Organic compounds include flame retardants, dioxins, chlorinated benzenes and phenols, nonylphenol etc.
In-organic compounds include arsenic, barium, asbestos, cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, nickel, chromium,
selenium, zinc, yttrium, tin etc. Few of these are toxix and are abundant in the nature.

The figure-1 depicts average composition of materials found in electronic waste according to one
of the study conducted by Swiss Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research.
As shown it consists of PCBs, Screens (CRTs, LCDs), Cables, batteries, metals, plastics, metal-plastic mixture,
pollutants etc.

E-waste recycling process | E-waste disposal process

The recycling of e-waste can be carried out in two ways viz. under controlled conditions and
under un-controlled conditions.

Under controlled conditions there are two methods.
In the first method, e-waste is dismantled first and later mechanically processed in order to separate/recover the
materials. In the second method, metallurgical processes are used in order to
recover the metals. The other processes are also followed in order to recover plastics and
other useful materials.

Recycling of e-waste under un-controlled conditions include following:
➨Manual dis-assembly and recovery of valuable materials
➨Acid extraction of metals
➨Shredding, melting and extrusion of plastics
➨Burning of plastics and residual materials
➨Toner sweeping
➨Dumping of residual materials in open areas, rivers, wetlands etc.

Advantages of E-waste recycling

Following are the advantages of E-waste recycling:
• E-waste consists of many useful resources in the form of components
and materials. These are recovered and re-used again.
This includes copper, gold, silver, palladium.
• The sorting of e-waste will provide above valuable materials which make up great amount of economical
incentive.
• E-waste recycling is also essential due to presence of other metals/materials such as
lead, nickel and various plastics.
• Due to above reasons, e-waste management is essential from the view of
material and resource recycling.

Disadvantages of E-waste recycling

Following are the disadvantages of E-waste recycling:
• Health hazards to human being due to undisposed e-waste
• Environmental impacts while recycling e-waste which leads to hazards/risks to humans.
• There are chemicals in the e-waste which are very harmful.
• There is a risk associated with placing e-waste on the land-fills.
This is due to leaching as well as evaporation of hazardous substances.